


Watch it Burn

by TakingFlight48



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Divergence from 2nd year on, Dumbledore Bashing, EWE, F/M, Gen, M/M, No Smut, Potentially Dark Harry, Potentially Dark Hermione, Revenge, Weasley Bashing, burn it down, mentions of relationships - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:00:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25886212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TakingFlight48/pseuds/TakingFlight48
Summary: Where some may have felt remorse, they felt a release as the white-hot flames of her firey inferno consumed the physical embodiment of their most repressed memories..
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Hermione Granger/Tom Riddle
Comments: 14
Kudos: 36
Collections: Somewhere in the World Fest





	Watch it Burn

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [pandora_rose_xo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pandora_rose_xo/pseuds/pandora_rose_xo) in the [Somewhere_in_the_World](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Somewhere_in_the_World) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> Ottery St. Catchpole
> 
> Enjoy ☮ ✌

They stand watch opposite the property in Ottery St. Catchpole, hand in hand. Although their wards will hold and Hermione’s control will not falter, Harry re-casts cooling charms as the blistering heat from her wand encourages the beads of sweat on their brows. 

With careful precision Hermione feeds more power into her spell, watching the open spaces of the vast yard shimmer in steam and ash as the animals from Hades creep ever closer to the home. 

Taking a final deep breath, shoulders back, arm loose, Harry gasps next to her as she conducts the flames into a shade of her betrothed’s deadly familiar. She moves the blazing basilisk to sway against the backdrop of night, waiting to strike. 

Should anyone happen to peer out their window, they would see with the most glorious pyre erected since the time of the Druids for this Midsummer Solstice. 

With a silent roar, Hermione commands the fiery inferno to open its maw and crash down over the poor excuse for a home, consuming everything in its wake. Harry squeezes her hand while they watch with dark satisfaction as every square foot goes up in flames - the magic of the home no match for Hermione’s own. 

* * *

‘Silencio,’ she whispered against her curtains, a new spell she had taught herself over winter holidays. She knew the girls would tease her relentlessly if they witnessed her eagerness to empty her bag before the start of term. She felt a strong compulsion to open and then disregard a crisp white note seemingly stuck within her bag’s inner seam. Tugging it free and opening it carefully, Hermione was startled by the contents of the message. 

_ Ms. Granger, _

_ Due to returning home for the holidays, please accept this tin of tarts in place of our missed weekly teas. You’ll find they are best every Thursday during break.  _

_ Once emptied the Thursday before your return, the tin will magically return to me.  _

_ I will see you the first Thursday of term. I will be enjoying Licorice Squares.  _

_ Happy Christmas,  _

_ Headmaster Dumbledore _

“Weekly teas?” With a furrowed brow, she continued aloud, “Think Hermione. You keep notes of every moment of your day.”

Shuffling quickly through her organizer, she felt dread pool heavily in her gut. She realized the only hour block of time that was empty of her whereabouts was every Thursday immediately before dinner. 

As a shiver racked through her small frame, Hermione worried her lip, trying hopelessly to remember ever stepping foot into the Headmasters office. 

Startled out of her reverie, she squealed as the note caught fire in her loosened hold. With a mournful whine, she watched her only concrete proof of sanity turn to ash. 

Shifting back to her original task, the ash in her hand and the cold sweat on her brow reminded her of the note once again, pushing her to write out her concerns before she forgot once again. 

Late that weekend, she researched the heaviest protections she could find in the restricted section to keep her planner, journal, and hopefully even mind private from others. 

Unbeknownst to her, a set of obsidian black eyes watched her frantic note-taking, surrounded by books specializing in dark wards, olde magic, and mind arts. 

Hermione felt her instincts and magic fighting against an external source regularly to remember all she had been uncovering. 

A few weeks later, after successfully warding her belongings, she began the very intricate art of Occlumency. During the start of a meditation, she overheard Oliver Wood and the Twins complaining about the change in their practice schedule. 

“Well, that seems alright, though, doesn't it? Better for the team as a whole?” Hermione asked as she turned towards them more fully. 

It was not until she was getting ready for bed, chuckling at the Twins' antics and blushing at Oliver’s warm smile that she realized it had been Ron who told her Harry had practice every Thursday before dinner, something that was very clearly a lie, and her dread grew. 

It was that following Saturday morning when Hermione approached Neville in green house 2, a calm around him only plants could provide as a blonde girl twirled around him. 

“Mia!” Neville smiled warmly at her, then glanced at the third in the group. “This is Luna, Luna Lovegood. She’s uh, she’s a first-year Ravenclaw,” she saw his cheeks warm slightly as Luna finally stopped twirling, her bright green and orange dress swirling around her a final time. 

“Mmm. Hello, Hermione Granger. I am so glad we finally meet. I see you noticed the Flapping Fritches stealing your time and the Nargles clouding your thoughts.”

Equal parts anxious and confused, it took Hermione a few moments to process how Luna intimated the very things she was worrying about. 

“Hello Luna, I am unsure what animals you think are causing this, but I uhm,” she turned quizzical eyes to Neville who was watching her with understanding. 

“Well to be quite honest with you Luna, I don’t think those creatures are the cause of my symptoms, but that is why I am here.” She attempted to keep her voice steady, not interested in insulting Neville’s friend, especially when she wanted his help. 

Before Hermione could begin, however, she knew she needed a wizard’s oath from the pair of them. 

“I have read all about them you see, and it seems you won’t be able to either answer any questions directly nor will your mind be able to reveal the information you are about to learn to those strong enough in mind magics.”

“Hermione, are you sure you need me? Why aren’t you, Harry, and Ron -”

“She can’t trust Ron,” Luna intoned darkly. 

Hermione quirked her brow at Luna as they extended their wands, promising secrecy with their very magics. 

Hermione started at the beginning then explained her request to have them both keep watch of the Headmaster’s Quarters that upcoming Thursday before dinner as well as keep Ron away from the both of them for the remainder of the night. 

Luna said she would help acquire the evidence Hermione needed with a serene smile but suggested she was certain what she would find. 

That Thursday, Hermione became thankful for the mental clarity that the white quartz tucked under her oxford had provided as she came to as if coming out of a dream much earlier than Harry. She jumped when she realized Luna and Neville were not alone. 

“Do you remember eating dinner Ms. Granger,” Professor McGonagall asked tensely as she prowled, tabby like, around the current room they were occupying. 

Placing a careful hand on her stomach she quietly shook her head as Harry was asked the same. 

“‘Mione,” Hermione shot him a glare at the use of that horrid nickname, “sorry ‘Mia,” he continued sheepishly, “what, what are we doing here exactly?”

“It would seem, Mr. Potter,” Professor Snape separated himself from the shadows as he stepped into their line of sight, “that you and Ms. Granger are the long term recipients of an intense amount of compulsion, suppression, and mind magics.”

“Magics that,” Professor McGonagall continued sharply, her anger turning her tension into static energy that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, “had Ms. Granger not had the presence of mind question, would have continued to corrupt and form every decision you both made for the entirety of your time in the wizarding world, and most definitely ending in you doing something as callous as getting yourselves killed for that barmy old man's greater good!”

That Saturday began their life of subterfuge as they were whisked away to the last place they ever expected. Although Harry was still catching up, he followed Hermione’s lead as they were greeted in an opulent receiving room by the sneering faces of Lord and Lady Malfoy. It wasn’t until Professor Snape confirmed they were clean of traces or bug charms that their sneers shifted into concerned glances between her and Harry. 

That day Harry received his protective necklace and how to conceal them with blood magic. During this lesson, they discovered the existence of another set of jewelry that neither had any memory of accepting. 

Although typically impossible to trace, Professor Snape was able to confirm each bracelet was attuned to the younger two Weasley siblings via charms akin to amortentia. 

That began their ongoing tutelage with either Professor, the Malfoy’s, and any Hogwarts students they could trust enough to join them. 

It was a month before the end of the term that Hermione was almost petrified by the creature terrorizing the halls from the alleged Chamber of Secrets. When Harry heard the whispered mutterings of the creature, they hid away behind hastily cast sense deprivation wards as the longest snake they had ever seen slunk by them. They were thankful Ron had been kept back in the common room by a chess tournament that evening. 

The following morning at breakfast, Hermione noticed, out of the corner of her eye, the deep surprise marring the headmaster's face at her appearance in the great hall. 

That weekend, Hermione and Harry brought Luna and Neville, who had a strong affinity to ‘hearing magic,’ to Malfoy Manor to show them what they had discovered within the pages of an unknown journal. Unbeknownst to them, it had been missing from Lucius’s study weeks before the start of term, and they were able to speak with the largest soul piece of one Tom Marvolo Riddle under the watchful eye of the adults. 

That summer, their group grew to include some of the Slytherin’s their own age as they were tutored in the precise art of skillful acting, which would be essential to maintain their covers moving forward. 

As the years progressed and their ruse held strong, Hermione and Harry got exceedingly close to Draco Malfoy and one Tom Riddle. It was with a two-year-long ritual and many hours during Samhain later that the group was able to bring together all the soul pieces, including the one constantly fighting to break free from Harry’s scar and bring back a dark, but whole young Lord Voldemort. 

As Harry and Tom came to terms with the manipulation and forced paths that one Albus Dumbledore had created in both their lives, Tom worked with the Hogwarts students to strengthen their magic. 

After the Triwizard Tournament and the subsequent false return of a gruesome like figure parading as Lord Voldemort, the Hogwarts contingency, as Hermione referred to them when it grew beyond the initial 4, began secret attacks on all fronts to Albus Dumbledore and the Greater Good. 

They had dispatched Albus Dumbledore, with a stake of his own making, earlier that year. The greatest wizard of the age who continued his weekly meetings with the two of them deep into their 6th year, blindly thinking he was in total control and oversharing his every move. 

* * *

Their long-buried resentment and dark desire for revenge was almost at its immediate end as The Burrow was returned to the hell it was created from. 

She felt them arrive before soft pops sounded behind them. With a warm hand to her lower back, Tom nuzzles her neck, knowing he would indulge in the dark magic pouring out of her as she finally calls off the last of the fiendfyre. 

With a quick glance to her left, she sends a knowing smirk to Draco, who is nuzzling Harry’s neck. 

“Let’s go, my Queen. The new future awaits,” Tom murmurs, suckling on her jaw as warm hands begin their assent under her black cashmere jumper. 

With a final squeeze from Harry’s hand, he disengages and consumes Draco with a fiery kiss of their own. 

Hermione catches the last embers of orange and white peter out below them as Tom’s magic envelopes her own, whisking them away in a blur of blacks and greys. 

**Author's Note:**

> PHEW! What a challenge, and also what a fantastic way to get our muses juices flowing [SAY THAT three times fast] and want to expand these little snippets into something much more detailed and long-winded than the challenge allowed. 
> 
> I see what you did there pandora_rose_xo. 
> 
> Anyway - super special thanks to her for this fest and super thanks to my many writing friends who helped me get this idea out of my head and into words. 
> 
> I am a Queen without a beta, simply abusing my Grammarly Premium subscription instead. 
> 
> I hope you Enjoyed! 
> 
> Feel free to leave Comments, pleaseandthankyou.
> 
> And if you must disagree with writing, ConCrit is always the preferred way to go. ॐ


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